On a Mission
A day with Mike Harris
Stand for Something
Building trusted brands
The Upside of the Downturn
Ten Management Strategies
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The Multiplier EffectWednesday 30th September 2009 In 'The Tipping Point', Malcolm Gladwell says: "Simply by finding and reaching those few special people who hold so much social power, we can shape the course of social epidemics...Look at the world around you. With the slightest push in the right place it can be tipped."
The reality is that your existing customers make the most powerful brand evangelists, for testimonials, co-creation of web content and as participants in harnessing insights for product development. Let consumer generated content develop your unique brand story and help you 'Create Your Own Space'. Unleash the 'SpaceVirus'!
The Law of SubtractionTuesday 29th September 2009 First coined by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the phrase, "less is more", is perfectly attuned to the brand building needs of today. "As provocative as it sounds," said CEO Helmut Panke of BMW, "the biggest task in brand-building is being able to say 'No!'" Say 'No!' by pruning products, multiple messages and marginal media.Divide and ConquerTuesday 29th September 2009 Web 2.0 offers the financial marketer an exciting new toolkit of podcasts, blogs, and online TV. However, it¹s not about talking at people. Involving the audience, sharing ideas and rewarding them with valuable content is king.
Narrowcasting rules - highly targeted media messages can be sent to specific market segments defined by values, preferences, or demographic attributes. The nature of content provision can be fine-tuned, not just by segment - but by individual!
Adding ValueMonday 28th September 2009 An issue that I see regularly is that many players are claiming exactly the SAME attributes
as differentiators. Statements such as: "What differentiates us is our people, our service and our professional approach" seems to me to be having the opposite effect to that which was intended. Ironically, it follows that the greater the organisational focus on these particular 'differentiators', the more similar these companies must seem in the eyes of their potential customers - resulting in inevitable commoditisation and price parity.
The thing is that brands need to be different at the core! As financial marketers, I believe we have a responsibility to ensure that each brand in our stewardship is treated individually. It therefore must have a distinctive core essence and a personality that sets it apart.
The real opportunity to gain a competitive advantage is to focus and develop DIFFERENT attributes from competitors and to build a Unique Value Proposition and customer experience from that solid foundation.
Practical PsychologySunday 27th September 2009 Thank you for your emails and feedback. I really enjoy receiving them and respond to them all personally and in my blogs. Last week, I was asked by a marketing executive of a US financial services firm about the Cognitive, Connective and Conative Space-States concept that I have defined and specifically how these can be used in a practical business context. I believe that this form of psychological analysis can be applied to any aspect of new business acquisition and I have chosen online marketing as an example, largely because of the practical nature of tracking and measurement available with digital media. Cognitive (Thinking) Connective (Feeling) Conative (Doing) 10% Referral Commission OfferFriday 25th September 2009 It couldn't be easier to refer a client, partner or contact to us. If you know someone whom you feel would benefit from our services, simply email us with their details (Name, Company Name, Email Address and Phone Number), first having let them know that we will be calling.Then for every project or retainer that has been completed by us and paid for, you can sit back and enjoy 10% referral commission for the life of the client! Creating Market ShiftThursday 24th September 2009 STEALTH FIGHTER - You can build a big business in small steps reasonably inexpensively - by the time the competition notices you, it's too late. From McDonalds building outlet by outlet through to Build a Bear Workshop, a brand footprint can be built before the world realises what has happened. This could be achieved in commercial finance, perhaps it already has.
VIRAL NETWORK- Hotmail tagged its messages so we all knew about it, Twitter became hot in social media by keeping it simple and encouraging rapid message distribution to a 140 character rule. Messages that feed themselves are powerful. Factoring debtor statements are massively under-utilised in terms of their ability to carry messages, whether online or offline. BUYING POWER – Huge marketing spend and R&D can make for a huge market space. Tell Nike that that strategy is not big or clever. It is possible to bankroll a finance business. However, the underwriting shouldn’t match the no-holds barred model to growth. And you can't ignore the creation of trust, which in this climate is easier said than done! Frog BlogTuesday 22nd September 2009 We look forward to bringing you a digest of fresh insights, information, news and views to keep you up to date with what really matters in the world of marketing. Look out for the Frog Blog, where the top marketing info lands.The Big Agency Model is Broken The current "Big Agency Model" is broken. Today, behemoth agencies are as slow to react as their clients and have become institutionalised themselves. Read More > Stop the Hop This is the perfect time to ring-fence your Competitive Advantage. In his seminal book, 'Competitive Strategy', Michael Porter talks about 'industry forces'. Richard Rumelt challenged this. Read More > The Really Green Agency We're really a rather green bunch at Marketing Agency UK. (Ok, apart from the orange feet and red eyes!). Here are just some of the things that we care a lot about. Read More > Hello World!Monday 21st September 2009 Welcome to the world of Marketing Agency UK, brought to you by Mike Symes and John Dillon, the directors of Strand Financial.
This exciting new launch is a direct result of demand from both our financial clients and venture capitalist partners to provide us with business referrals to their own clients and partners. Marketing Agency UK has been established as a new breed of integrated marketing agency, focused on building brand equity and driving enquiry to help businesses Leapfrog the Competition™. We hope you'll hop around our pad for a while to find out more. And that when you do, you'll see you've landed in good company. Help your clients make the leap to the next level. Financial Marketing TV – Fresh, Exciting New Online ContentSunday 20th September 2009 See brand new content from the greatest marketers in the world FREE on the specialist online TV channel for financial marketers, Financial Marketing TV.
Simply visit http://www.financialmarketing.tv to view the topical feature video content below, then click on the GuruTube section and discover the thoughts of marketing giants such as Gladwell, Porter, Kotler, McDonald and many more. Video of the Month – The Tribes We Lead Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, Tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so. Exciting New Content Is Marketing the New Finance? Guy Phillipson, CEO, Internet Advertising Bureau answers the question buzzing round boardrooms everywhere - Is Marketing the new Finance? Emerging Winners Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practice, London Business School asks what will winning organisations look like in 18 months' time? Do Brands Matter? Ije Nwokorie, Senior Strategist, Wolff Olins debates whether brands actually matter in the current economic climate? The New Media Landscape Clay Shirky shows how Facebook, Twitter and TXTs help citizens to connect and looks at immediacy in news reporting. Transforming Business Culture Nigel Nicholson, Professor of Organisational Behaviour, London Business School considers the downturn as an opportunity to transform business culture. Changing the Media Mix Mark Howe, Country Sales Director, Google UK reports on how marketers can change their media mix in a recession to get the most out of their marketing budget. Getting EmotionalSaturday 19th September 2009 This step back into the 1990s also brought up some interesting early thinking on how emotional values were becoming increasingly important in differentiating brands, however, it struck me that far too little has been explored in terms of financial marketing in terms of the positioning of emotional attributes as part of a Unique Value Proposition.Free (1996) proposed that services branding was about values, which “represent the heart and soul of a company." It was recognised pre-Millenium that branding in services marketing is "about the blending of functional and emotional values." (de Chernatony and Dall’Olmo Riley, 1999). In discussing the future of banking, Jones (1999) also observed that "greater focus would need to be placed on emotional rather than rational brand values". Previous research has also shown that a brand’s emotional added values are more sustainable than functional added values, which may be easily replicated (de Chernatony, Harris and Dall’Olmo Riley, 1999). Which leads me to the question, "How could emotional attributes differentiate your brand?" and "How can you blend and balance functional and emotional attributes within your Unique Value Proposition?" SWOT Up on StrategyWednesday 16th September 2009 This week I was asked how a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) could be made to be more relevant as a basis for action, rather than the dry theoretical academic exercise it has become in many corporates. A SWOT Analysis is a method for assessing an organisation’s resources and capabilities in the context of the competitive environment in which it operates. A simple rule applies - Strengths and Weaknesses are Internal and Opportunities and Threats are External. Here's a tip - a good way to prioritise your SWOT Analysis is to put yourself in the client’s shoes to identify the areas of greatest importance to them.
The analysis identifies:
What the business does well
How it could improve Whether it is taking full advantage of the opportunities (particularly those that match with strengths) Whether there are any changes in the environment which require a corresponding change in business strategy That doesn't sound too dry to me at least. In fact it can be turned into an incisive way of communicating competitive advantage. A great way of starting to produce your Strategic Action Plan is to place S / W as headers at the top of a four box matrix with O / T to the left. Then apply the following rules: S-O Capitalise / Crush!
S-T Monitor / Anticipate W-O Improve / Change W-T Eliminate / Reduce Self-Actualising People Make It HappenTuesday 15th September 2009 According to Maslow, the tendencies of self-actualising people are as follows:
1. Awareness efficient perception of reality freshness of appreciation peak experiences ethical awareness 2. Honesty philosophical sense of humour social interest deep interpersonal relationships democratic character structure 3. Freedom need for solitude autonomous, independent creativity, originality spontaneous 4. Trust problem centered acceptance of self, others, nature resistance to enculturation - identity with humanity It's a vision of the modern consumer, of the early adopter, that sought-after, dreamed-of viral referral source that makes just about everything happen for your brand. Find them and your brand will fly. Self-Actualisation - Top-level MarketingMonday 14th September 2009 Self-Actualisation Needs Transcendence Needs
This is all about giving back, enriching others or championing a greater cause. The Body Shop web site tells us, "Never doubt that a group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, that's the only thing that ever does."
Cognitive Needs Aesthetic needs Maslow Under the MicroscopeSunday 13th September 2009 Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is often shown as a pyramid consisting of five levels: The first four levels of the pyramid are what Maslow called "deficiency needs": Physiological, Safety, Social, and Esteem and the final ‘Growth’ level is defined as Self-Actualisation. In this blog, I am focusing purely on deficiency needs. Physiological Needs Safety Needs Social Needs Esteem needs Single-Minded MarketingSunday 13th September 2009 In the marketing classic, 'Positioning' by Al Ries and Jack Trout it says, in essence: - Position yourself in the prospect's mind I agree with the first point entirely - space is first created in the mind before it can ever be created in the market. On the second point, I also concur that you will gain by standing for one attribute that will give you competitive advantage. However and this is a big 'however', there is also a valid point that could be argued that in this era of hyper-competition,'bundling' can also form a powerful Unique Value Proposition with multiple attributes culminating in a single proposition. So, the first three get my vote, with perhaps some adjustment. I have to say that the fourth assumption leaves me cold and from my experience I believe it to be fundamentally wrong on every level. The principle of sacrifice, of potentially missing out, has left countless financial services marketers reticent to use a distinctive single-minded proposition that, if applied, would doubtless prove highly successful. Here's my point and one of the main secrets of branding success: Just because you are known for and exclusively focused on one attribute doesn't have to mean that you have to give up all others. How can that be? Consider the following real-life example from the world of financial marketing: A large regional accountancy firm that has earned an unrivalled reputation for delivering complex M&A work has won more standard audit work from clients than its competitors. The key is held in the thought-process of the prospect themselves. It follows that if the firm can handle work that is that complex and exacting, the attributes of expertise, added value, professionalism, timeliness, accuracy etc will be applied to the entire brand experience and specifically the approach to the audit. It's a view that flies in the face of commonly accepted marketing theory, that by becoming even more focused, you actually gain greater diversity of opportunity in your market! We are true believers and living proof. After all, Strand Financial is known as the specialist financial marketing agency!
How Accountancy Firms Can Maximise Their Client ReferralsThursday 10th September 2009 The other day I blogged about the importance of referrals for accountancy firms. Here are some practical tips as to how to maximise their effectiveness:
1 From day one, clients should be made aware that that referrals (and testimonials) are a key part of your business. After all, that is how they may well have been introduced to you, so the concept is unlikely to be completely alien to them. 2 The market for your referrals is characterised by inertia and latent demand. If you’re gaining referrals at the moment without asking for them, you’ll double or triple the number you get when you ask. Ask in person, ask by mail and email, ask on the phone. Ask – and keep asking. 3 Remember that clients are not just doing you a favour by giving you a referral. We actually ENJOY giving referrals. Don’t you like recommending a great film you’ve seen to a family member or friend? Your clients will actually get pleasure from giving the people they know the same good service experience they’ve had. This is one of the reasons that asking for referrals works better than many factoring and invoice discounting companies think. 4 Thank your clients when they give you referrals. Send them a letter or call them. 5 Reward your customers for giving you a referral. Either with a gift, or something of value from your business or, if appropriate, with cash. The better the gift, the more likely they are to give you more referrals. 6 Many accountancy firms are poor at harvesting and measuring client referrals and few have professionally integrated mechanisms or processes in place to do so. Have a specialist financial marketing agency create a formal referral system where you regularly and consistently ‘market’ client referrals. Promote your business referral process with a carefully planned sequence of emails, direct mail, ‘phone calls and meetings. The Power of PartnershipsWednesday 09th September 2009 I'm often asked by financiers how prospective channel relationships can be developed to become powerful business-driving partnerships. I have developed the 4Cs model for the purpose of assessing partnerships and this takes into account the following criteria: Congruence - First, we examine the closeness of fit to the client's existing introducer base - size, structure, geography, mix of lenders they work with currently and service / product gaps etc. Contacts - Then, we look at the network base (the introducers' client base) and identify how closely this matches with the type of business we are looking for. Culture - We assess the beliefs and cultural fit of the leading players. Commitment - And we look at the level of commitment they have to the partnership - shared project marketing budgets, direct mail, pr and news bulletins, other joint promotions to accelerate business development. Accountancy Focus = Greater DiversityWednesday 09th September 2009 Consider the following real-life marketing example: A large regional accountancy firm that has earned an unrivalled reputation for delivering complex mergers and acquisitions work has won more standard audit work from clients than its competitors.
The key is held in the thought-process of the prospect themselves. It follows that if the firm can handle work that is that complex and exacting, the attributes of expertise, added value, professionalism, timeliness, accuracy etc will be applied to the entire brand experience and specifically the approach to the audit. It's a view that flies in the face of commonly accepted marketing theory, that by becoming even more focused, you actually gain greater diversity of opportunity in your market! Risky Business for Professional Services FirmsTuesday 08th September 2009 I read a great quote from Seth Godin this month. It said: "Professional service marketing is certainly among the safest I've seen. Because it appears to take no risks, it's actually quite risky." I think I'd go further to say that because safe marketing approaches are, by definition, quite so unremarkable and consequently go unnoticed, these are the ones that put your marketing investment at the highest risk. Ironically, if you want to be truly risk-averse and protect the future of your financial services business and your brand, it's time to stop being quite so 'safe' and identify how you can stand out.In a recent study, 81% of professional service firms reported they used differentiation as a marketing approach in the previous three years; the majority thought of differentiation as an exercise in image enhancement. However, the most-used surface-level differentiation approaches were not necessarily found to be the most effective. The more operationally “deep” the differentiation strategies were, the more successful they proved to be and the less price became an issue in the decision-making process. It’s great to stand out but there needs to be a connected marketing reason to support and substantiate the differentiated proposition. Get The Santander Habit?Monday 07th September 2009 Banking analyst Leigh Goodwin has gone public with his thoughts that the rebranding of Abbey is a risk for Santander and, in his view, a mistake, saying: "Abbey has good value as a trusted brand in the mortgage and savings arena. Staff will be upset and there will be a potential loss of customers." Time will tell whether this £12 million rebrand is a success. In terms of the sponsorship of Formula One, and especially Lewis Hamilton and McLaren Mercedes, Santander has created awareness - but is it of the right kind? After all, Hamilton is struggling badly with his car this season and the sport is hardly known for its integrity - just the kind of tie-up the financial world would do well to avoid right now. Brand Channel - Beyond the BullSunday 06th September 2009 Many thanks to Paul Hinds, Managing Director of Seven Advertising who has brought my attention to the following post from Brand Channel referring to the decisive action taken by banks to divest themselves of troubled brands:"Lest we forget, some of these names had considerable brand equity in and of themselves. Brands are a life form of sorts; they have histories and personalities. Seeing a long-standing brand name that stood for something suddenly disappear should be cause for reflection, maybe even concern. But in a crisis of this magnitude, marketers must take extreme action. The operative word is rebranding: Kill the offending brand, call it something else and move on. More often than not, rebranding ultimately pays off since consumers, it seems, have relatively short memories." To read the whole story follow the link: http://www.brandchannel.com/start1.asp?fa_id=484 The message is, if the trust inherent in the brand promise has gone, revert to the stronger brand name in the merger or create an entirely new brand name. It just got me thinking that no banks have opted to go the Skoda advertising route. I'm not entirely convinced that wit and self-deprecation will divert the consumer on this particular issue, however short their memories. Let's face it: "It's Lehman's. Honest" is hardly going to fly as a proposition. 80% More Customer Quotes from CampaignThursday 03rd September 2009 "You must be different", comments The Financial Brand (US). "If you can’t actually be different, at least look different. Differentiation — even if only achieved on a cosmetic and superficial level — will at least get you noticed, and that’s the first step on the way to building a strong brand."
Disagree? It has taken an online financial and utility services aggregator to remind the market what it is meant to be doing. An aristocratic furry creature in a velvet smoking jacket stands on a stool in front of the fire in a baronial hall and introduces himself as founder of comparethemeerkat.com He says that lately they have had many visitors to the site looking for car insurance, which he cannot find for them. He suggests that for cheap car insurance we should go to comparethemarket.com instead. To put this into context, 80% more customers have requested quotes since the Meerkat ads were aired. Mike Symes, managing director of Strand Financial comments, "The top left hand quadrant of Ansoff (existing products being sold to existing markets) is about a lot more than 'right-time' and 'opportunity' - creativity has a greater and more disruptive role to play than many financial services organisations recognise." "It just shows what can happen when memorable, humorous creative meets with real conviction - as the Meerkat would say - the rest is "Simples". Congratulations to the client who had the guts to go for it. We salute you!" Financial Survey Highlights ChallengesWednesday 02nd September 2009 Financial services firms need to work hard to regain the trust of their constituents, and effectively communicating the steps they are taking to address their difficulties will help restore confidence in their institutions, according to a new survey by BackBay Communications and Marketwire.
The biggest communications challenges for financial services firms in the next six months are overcoming a credibility gap with their constituencies (66%), managing crises (57%), and responding to regulatory changes (50%), according to the 109 financial journalists who participated in the survey. According to respondents, financial services companies have an opportunity to rebuild trust and differentiate themselves in the current difficult climate by being seen as financially sound (71%), honest and credible (69%), and having their customers' interests in mind (58%). Financial services reporters also face frustrations in today's environment. They say their biggest challenges are: getting financial services firms to communicate in a downturn (48%), finding the time and resources to cover the news (47%), and knowing who to believe (39%). Unresponsiveness and evasiveness can lead to negative media coverage. According to the financial reporters polled, the most common mistakes by financial firms that lead to negative media coverage include: failure to communicate newsworthy developments promptly and honestly (79%), not responding to calls or e-mails seeking commentary (76%), and evasive responses (70%). Likewise, when communicating during a crisis, the most common mistakes made by financial services firms include: lack of communication (86%), not providing access to senior leadership (61%), and incorrect or dishonest communications (60%). In crisis communications, financial reporters say it is most important to communicate in a timely manner (89%), communicate honestly (85%), and provide access to senior leadership (67%). Survey respondents say the best ways for financial services companies to receive positive media coverage is through developing relationships with reporters (78%), having company executives available to discuss industry trends (78%), and developing studies on marketplace issues (58%). "Financial services firms that maintain strong relationships with reporters, understand their needs for timely news and thoughtful perspectives, and respect their deadlines, will receive the lion's share of accurate and fair media coverage," said Haynes. "A strategic public relations firm with a financial services focus can help shape messages, develop studies, and build and strengthen ties with the media." Financial reporters say private equity and venture capital firms are not the best communicators. No journalists rated these firms as excellent, and only 30% said their communications capabilities are good, while 23% rated them poor and 48% fair. Common communications mistakes for private equity and venture capital firms include: not willing to share enough information on acquisitions and exits (65%), inconsistent communications (38%), not offering enough thought leadership on industry trends (35%) and only discussing portfolio companies at time of investment or exit (35%). Financial reporters encourage private equity and venture capital firms to: be accessible to reporters (86%), develop professional relationships with reporters (73%), and communicate regularly and consistently in good times and bad through a variety of dissemination vehicles (66%). Tectonic Marketing - The Big Shake-UpTuesday 01st September 2009 For billions of years, our planet has been generating, destroying and healing itself in an endless pattern of self-renewal. Recently, we have seen that the tectonic plates beneath the global financial system have shifted significantly and there will be a new financial world order that will be born of this.The recent Business Money All Asset Conference highlighted a number of key aspects where the lending landscape is changing. Our job as financial marketers is now to consider what our new macro-marketing world might look like and to identify how we can take advantage of the seismic changes that are happening before our eyes. This is business as ‘unusual’. Identifying the Fault Areas A fragile strata of trust and confidence in financial services forms the weakest fault line right now. Today, re-establishing trust is not enough – complete ground-up re-invention is required for financial marketing to have a real and permanent impact. Creating a Movement, Building Mountains I recently noticed a sign hanging in a CEO’s office that featured the words of business strategist Gary Hamel: “Create a cause, not a business”. Brave financial organisations would do well to draw strength and courage from allegiance to a transcendent purpose that matches the values and belief systems of their clients. The case studies that I have conducted recently with Asset Based Lending clients highlight that it is the prevailing attitudes and values of lenders that prompt attrition or attraction. In the current fluid market, a financial brand has greater opportunity to spark a movement or crystallise its rise towards dominance. Today, financial marketing is about building communities, inspiring actions, and creating opportunities that help people belong. Low-level Market Shifts are those that result when attacking a convention leads to a renewal of the brand, not the market. The brand's place within a given market has been shifted as opposed to the displacement of the market itself. By contrast, a high-level Market Shift occurs when the brand, by expressing a new vision, displaces the entire market. Creating a new Market Space. Where that brand has room to grow – even more profitably. This stage is about all-out questioning, developing new hypotheses and unexpected ideas. A leap of the imagination from the present to the future. Look towards strategic financial marketing, beyond communications. It has the power to build mountains. |
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